my perfect day

had a really good day off today.

started off with a healthy trip to the gym and a dog walk. then a little bit of housework (just to appease my guilty conscience . .  not!)

then i had lunch and catch up with an old friend.

finally finished off with a bit of craft shopping and finally some crafting!!

perfect . . even had time to cook a proper dinner.

the first thing i made was some more dominoes, i really enjoyed making the last one, wasn't quite as pleased with these but they are ok, the most difficult bit is working out how to make the bails to thread the cord through. this time i did some wire wrapping.

i had  a commission to make 4 cards for a friend for various occasions.

 these are a few i made for her to choose from.

i love these simple forever friends cards and i think i will be making quite a lot of them, they are not just for valentines!

i also had to make some cards with my new stamps. this one i think will be ok for an adult as well as kids, who wants to be a grown up anyway. the outline is embossed with copper powder. it is coloured in with aqua promarkers and sakura pens.

finally i made a couple of cards using the stamps from craft stamper. this is my favourite from the set, it is a lovely stamp. i will be a bit more creative with it when i have more time.

 now to finsh the day of i am going to do some beading.... no time to sleep too much to do . . i've got a beret to finish too, i'd better get on then. bye

i'm so excited

i'm so excited this week,

all because of craft stamper magazine.

on thursday i received my subscription gift, a beautiful set of floral stamps from elusive images.i think this is the best set of stamps they have had for subscribers and it arrived in about 4 days. can't wait to use them,  just need to get some ez mount.

today i came home from work to another parcel from craft stramper, only i wasn't expecting this one . i had won a  set of mabel lucie attwell stamps. the set consisted of 6 unmounted cute kiddy type stamps, so watch this space for some stuff done with them.

now i really need to get some ez mount .... now dont think i can wait until i go to 'make it'.

thanks craft stamper. . .  here are some atc's i made recently to sent to their childhood swop.  just coz i haven't any other pics to show 

see ya

busy day 2

during my busy day yesterday i also made some atc for a magazine challenge. didn't have time to blog them yesterday

why do i always leave it to the last day to make the atc's, must be something to do with deadline pressure. floral styles are probably my favourite, but i found this quite a challenge. i think i wanted to do something a bit different to my usual style, in the end i didn't .... not really.

the top card is stamped with a stamp i made of some gerberas from amsterdam, i brushed them with perfect pearls to give a lovely pearly sheen. on top are punched flowers with utee on and a brad. i stamped the word  'flowers ' at the side, i think this is my favouite.

the left hand card is quite simple, the stem and flower is stamped with a punched flower and gem on top. the pots are embossed with copper powder.

the right hand card has  dictionary paper stuck on with golden medium part of the text says 'bloom'. the tag has a lovely flower stamp on which i have also used on the backing card, the backing card has been smudged with brilliance ink pads in pink and purple.

why do i always feel guilty when i tear pages out of the dictionary, even though i brought it from a charity shop for that purpose?

busy day

i had a busy crafting day to day, not for long but i seemed to get a lot done.

i'm sure everyone knows it is valentines day on sunday. . .  it's not. . .  it is my daughter lucy's birthday. 

 she used to get very upset when she was little about everyone talking about valentines day and not her birthday!!

i dont usually include anything valentine-y on her card,  but this year i couldn't resist the forever friends stamps available, soooo cute.

 i saw joannes pencil coloured card and had to do something similar, it was so clean and simple.

i also made a card for my hubby, but made it a bit more lovey dovey.
i stamped around the edge with various stamps i already had the  paper with love printed on it, i layered the bear on the top. the bear is coloured in with aqua promarkers. i used glossy accents on the word love and the little hearts, just to give it a different texture.

we are having a big family dinner on sunday. . . . . . not for valetines day obviously, it's lucy's birthday!!!!  her present? we are going on agirls trip to paris. . . very romantic!!!!!

happy birthday jan

here is the card i made for my best friend janice, she loves purple. i hope she does not think it is self indulgent to have a picture of me on the front, as i am smiling it fits in well with the greeting. i made the stamp so i guess i should use it!!

the back ground was a rather uninspiring swirly pattern so i sprayed it with perfect purl mists i made myself, it is the first time i have used these like this. my picture is stamped and embossed with a copper stewart gill powder, i smudged it with ink to make it look old  (much like me). the wording is embossed in the same colour. the corners are randomly stamped with a free stamp from craft stamper magazine. i finished the card off with a few gems from papermania, every girl likes a bit of bling.

i also made her a domino

 we both love beads, so it is really hard to make something different that she has not seen.

vicky from work makes lovely dominoes so i thought i would make her one.

first i embossed the sides with silver cosmic shimmer utee, but just once as i wanted some of the white to show and look spotty!

 i stamped the swirl with perfect medium amd then 2 coats of blue cosmic shimmer utee. then 2 coats of clear ranger utee. before the 3rd coat i added a few sprinkles of silver and then pressed the stamp in again where the blue showed through.

 the domino has a very stoney almost marble look to it , i was very pleased with it, i hope she likes it too. the cord is made from purple cotton using my lucet, a fabulously simple cord maker brought at the knitting and stitching show from a guy called ziggy, check him out! at http://www.thelucet.co.uk/

 i also made her a box to put it in, but didn't check the size until after i had finished it and yup it didnt fit, so i had to make another one. both boxes were from a pack by kay&co.
very pretty, just push them out and add the embellishments

 well everyone is allowed to cheat sometimes.
were are off to stitch n craft for some retail therapy tomorrow, yay
spend! spend! spend! . . .  well maybe not